From the #NHIBuzz event on Friday, March 21. This presentation covers Owned Media tips for optimizing your content with recent Google Hummingbird updates in mind. From page-level optimization to social magnification, learn more about how to make your content work for search.

1. NINAHALE.COM C O N F I D E N T I A L & P R O P R I E T A R YNINAHALE.COM C O N F I D E N T I A L & P R O P R I E T A R Y
NHI BUZZ Event
SEO & Algorithms
March 21, 2014
Owned & Earned
Media

2. NINAHALE.COM C O N F I D E N T I A L & P R O P R I E T A R Y 2
Jake McCormick
• Search Marketing
Manager
• Certified in Google
Analytics & BrightEdge
• Experience includes
B2B, B2C, eCommerce,
lead generation, small
business, big business,
local SEO & journalism

3. NINAHALE.COM C O N F I D E N T I A L & P R O P R I E T A R Y 3
Katie Pennell
• Senior Content
Specialist
• Certified in Google
Analytics, Google
Adwords, BrightEdge
• Experience includes
education, health care,
technology, home
improvement, home
decor & publishing

4. NINAHALE.COM C O N F I D E N T I A L & P R O P R I E T A R Y
What We’ll Cover Today
• The definition of a search algorithm
• Google’s algorithmic evolution
• Content-specific ranking factors
• Writing for today and future algorithms and
users
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5. NINAHALE.COM C O N F I D E N T I A L & P R O P R I E T A R Y
What is a search “algorithm”?

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(We Googled It)
• From Wikipedia:
“In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm is a
step-by-step procedure for calculations. Algorithms are
used for calculation, data processing, and automated
reasoning.”
• From Google:
“Algorithms are computer programs that look for clues to
give you back exactly what you want. Today Google’s
algorithms rely on more than 200 unique signals or ‘clues’
that make it possible to guess what you might really be
looking for.”
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“Guess”
“Know”
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Search Algorithms: A History

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Nine Years Of Algorithm Evolution
• Boston
• Cassandra (Link quality)
• Dominic (Link weight)
• Esmeralda
• Fritz
• Florida (On-page)
• Austin (On-page)
• Brandy (Latent Semantic Indexing)
• Allegra (Links, LSI)
• Bourbon (duplicate content)
• Personalized Search
• Jagger (Link quality)
• Big Daddy (infrastructure)
• Universal (News, Video, Images, Local, etc.
vs. 10 blue links)
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• Google Suggest
• Vince (Brands)
• Caffeine (Infrastructure)
• May Day (Long Tail)
• Google Instant
• Attribution (Scrapers)
• 3 Page Layouts (Above the Fold Ads)
• Search + Your World (Personalized)
• Venice (Local)
• Knowledge Graph
• Authorship
• One-Box
• 25 Pandas (Content Quality)
• 5 Penguins (Link Quality)
• Hummingbird (Infrastructure)

10. NINAHALE.COM C O N F I D E N T I A L & P R O P R I E T A R Y
Google’s Algo Update Process:
• 2012:
– 118,812 search quality evaluations
– 10,391 A/B experiments
– 7,018 live traffic experiments
– 665 official updates
• 2014:
– ~15 – 70 updates per month
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11. NINAHALE.COM C O N F I D E N T I A L & P R O P R I E T A R Y
2005 Moz Ranking Factors:
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• Title Tag
• Anchor Text of Links
• Keyword Use in Document Text
• Accessibility of Document
• Links to Document from Site-
Internal Pages
• Primary Subject Matter of Site
• External Links to Linking Pages
• Link Popularity of Site in Topical
Community
• Global Link Popularity of Site
• Keyword Spamming
Great
Content

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Google Panda

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25 Panda Updates since Feb. 2011
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• After Panda 2.0, more of a filter than update.
• Impacts site-wide rankings, not just a single page.
• Penalizes:
– Keyword stuffing
– Thin content
– Hidden content
– Duplicate content
– Affiliate linking
– Exact match anchor text
– Slow page load
– Low quality content
• Each negative ranking factor is graded on a curve of
industry prevalence.
– Commonly spammed industries: Pharmaceuticals, Legal, Finance
(Loans), Ecommerce, “Content Farm” sites, Digital Marketing

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If your copy looks like this, you’re
doing it wrong:
• “They don want their feathers ruffled. Don get me
incorrect, Kris is usually a Fantastic singer, but in no
way precisely the same caliber as Adam.”
– Cheap newport cigarettes online free shipping say no to
high prices
• “Thanks for еvery othеr informative site. Ԝheгe
еlse mɑy јust I ɑm gеtting tҺat type of informаtion
written іn ѕuch a perfect mеans?”
– Sales Training videos in Hindi
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Moral: Google Loves “Great Content”
• 58 of Matt Cutts’ video questions are content-
based (theshortcutts.com).
• He mentions “great content” 2,593 times.*
• $1,000,000 question: What defines “great
content”?
*May be a slight exaggeration
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Matt Cutts: Head of Google
Webspam Team, Official
Google Spokesman

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Enter: Google Hummingbird
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What is Hummingbird?
• An algorithm upgrade, not update
• Improved understanding of:
– Implicit vs. Explicit Intent
– Natural Language Processing
– Entity Recognition
– Semantic Relevance
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Basically:
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Entity Recognition
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Implicit vs. Explicit Intent
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Natural Language Processing
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• Artificial intelligence understands the context
and semantics of human language.

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Where did he go to college?
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Where did Aaron Rodgers go to
college?
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“Guess”
“Know”
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The Future Of Search
• Algorithms can increasingly comprehend human
language and context, making it easier to
serve up the best results possible.
• Understanding how search engines read
content is the spring board to a sustainable
content strategy.
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Search for this…
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Follow up with this…
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Writing for Today’s Google
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Ranked Content: Then
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Ranked Content: Now
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“The more things change, the more
they stay the same.”
- Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr
• It all boils down to the basics of good content:
– Knowing your goals
– Knowing your audience
– Knowing your industry

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Goals
• Sell?
• Educate?
• Thought leadership?
• Brand awareness?
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Audience
• Keyword research
• Analytics
• 3rd party research
• Internal qualitative research
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Possible Keyword
Monthly Search
Queries
Foaming bath gel 73
Bubble bath 49,500

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Industry
• Language & terminology
• Competitors
• Industry updates
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But What About Google?
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• Title Tag
• Keyword Use in Document
Text
• Links to Document from Site-
Internal Pages
• Primary Subject Matter of
Site
• External Links to Linking Pages
• Link Popularity of Site in
Topical Community
• Global Link Popularity of Site
Great
Content

36. NINAHALE.COM C O N F I D E N T I A L & P R O P R I E T A R Y 36
Quality Content Leads To:
• Shares & Evangelism
• Backlinks
• Visibility
• Achieved Goals

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So What is Quality Content?
“Just because somebody dots every i and crosses
every t and gets all their HTML structure right,
doesn't mean that it's good content.”
-Matt Cutts

39. NINAHALE.COM C O N F I D E N T I A L & P R O P R I E T A R Y
Key Takeaways
• Algorithms evolve, but the definition of “great content” (in
the context of your industry) does not
• Every algorithm progression makes “natural” writing easier
• Examining search results is critical
– Clues for content, searcher intent
• Know your goals, industry, and audience before creating
content
• Include social sharing widgets & amplify content on social
platforms
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Write for people. The robots
will follow.
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^

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42. NINAHALE.COM C O N F I D E N T I A L & P R O P R I E T A R Y
Thank you
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For more information on how to improve your
content marketing and SEO visibility, visit
NinaHale.com.
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